Dr. Saturday

Brady Hoke says Notre Dame ‘chickening out’ of the series against Michigan

Brady Hoke's response to Notre Dame getting out of its series against Michigan was to lob some grade-school playground taunts at the Irish.

Notre Dame canceled games against Michigan from 2015-2017, and the Wolverines publicly responded that Notre Dame was solely responsible for that. The schools had previously agreed to not play in 2018 and 2019, and perhaps Hoke is trying to drum up interest in reviving the series after that.

"The Notre Dame game, that rivalry, which they're chickening out of," Hoke said during a West Michigan Sports Commission luncheon, according to MLive.com.

No word on whether Hoke strutted around calling, "Bwack, bwack, BWAAAAACK!" about the Irish (or if upon the mention of chicken he yelled out, "I ate the bones!").

"They're still gonna play Michigan State, they're gonna play Purdue, but they don't want to play Michigan," Hoke said, according to MLive.com. "I don't know how they made that decision ... I really do ... But anyway, that's a great national rivalry game. It's a great game."

Aside from the juvenile taunting, Hoke does have a point. The fact that the rivalry is going away is bad for everyone.

College football has precious few great non-conference rivalries, especially ones that play early in the season. Michigan and Notre Dame provided some good entertainment, even during the years when either or both teams were down and living more off reputation than reality. Now with Hoke and Brian Kelly have reestablished their programs, the rivalry would have been exciting and nationally relevant.

But after 2014 we'll be waiting a while to see it again, no matter how much Hoke wants to goad Notre Dame into playing the Wolverines.

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